Self Sabotage: Sodium Overdose...

If you have read prior posts in this blog you will know I have been having problems the past two weeks with water retention. Massive water retention - to the point that my calves and ankles are swelling up tremendously and having serious problems. Also it is causing my weight to fluctuate.

I have been breaking out my Sherlock Holmes hat and pipe and magnifying glass, pacing the floor, examining the evidence. Or playing the old board game, CLUE with myself.

Surely, it was the COOKS with the SALT in the work CAFETERIA! I was playing my own version of Colonel Mustard, in the library, with the candlestick. Well, I think I may have finally figured out the culprit. I got a good look at him in the mirror this morning when I was shaving!

I was ready to blame my diet drinks, my Lipton Diet Green Teas, and just about everything. I finally sat down on the Calorie King website and checked sodium levels for what I have been eating. ARGH!!! I see my fingerprints all over the crime scene.

Here is some of the foods I have been eating frequently for a quick meal:

3-5 beef hot dogs with some melted cheese on top and a few dill pickles or green olives, with spicy mustard on top. ARGH!!!

I thought I read the labels but didn't understand that sodium nitrate or sodium nitrite (in the hot dogs) was the same thing as sodium (as in salt). I has even bought and used some no nitrate and no nitrate dogs (Oscar Meyer) but bought a whole lot of different kinds of dogs so I would have some variety in taste and all. And I had no idea the pickles were so salty. I kind thought the olives were, but I didn't eat more than ~5 - 10 of them at a time, and only occasionally.

Add that with the sodium I am getting in my bacon or sausage and in my eggs (at breakfast), and in other meats, and I am waaaaaay overdoing it. No wonder I am having major problems the past couple of weeks retaining water.

I am my own worst enemy - I plead GUILTY to Self Sabotage!! It was easy to look outside and assume someone else had done this to me (my first instinct in this instance). Because surely I was not overdoing it. But unfortunately I regret to say that I am the culprit. I have committed the heinous acts against myself. I have been sitting on the dynamite and pushing the plunger myself. ARGH!!!

So where do we go from here? Well, I am doing what I can to lose the water. My legs are so swollen I almost thought I would have to go to the doctor tonight. I am changing my diet to avoid all the hot dogs and pickles and all. I saw some no nitrite and no nitrate Oscar Meyer hot dogs at Walmart, and though I tried them, I continued to buy a variety of products (mostly bad for me sodium-wise). Going to do more fish, chicken, hamburger, and other meats, and cut back on the franfurters and such until I can get some low sodium dogs in the fridge.

I cannot believe I have been undermining myself like this. Knowing I have circulatory problems in my legs and sensitivity to salt, I never sat down to do the actual math and homework to figure out what I was shoveling into my mouth. It never occurred to me that I was the one doing this. I suspected the diet cokes, the cafeteria at work, my vitamins, potassium deficiency, and all kinds of things. Can't believe I never looked at the OBVIOUS!

Ah well, ...you live and you learn. Kudos to the Calorie King website with its online information. HTTP://www.calorieking.com

A portrait of my own self-sabotage

These are a few of my favorite things...

Can't you just hear Julie Andrews singing that song from the Sound of Music? Well, listen harder, then!

Actually, I thought it might be good to mention some of the beverages that keep me going. I think it is important to continue to have flavor in your life and to both eat and drink good stuff!

I've always been "big on beverages". I would often get a coffee, milk, and orange juice with breakfast (in my pre-low carb days), for example. And I think I have been drinking lots for a long time, perhaps since I went on the low calorie diet in my thirties and just got used to drinking so much water, tea, etc.

When I got off that diet (years ago) I went right back to sugary Cokes and major amounts of High Fructose Corn Syrup in all it's many flavors and packagings, along with lots of milk and other stuff to drink. And I was always about drinking the XXL sized drinks - probably how I ended up an XXXXL in the end, huh? Yeah, no kiddin!

Now that I am LCing it, I am trying to cut back on the coffee some, drink more tea and water, and find good things to drink. The thing is, I think most of the diet drinks that are sweetened with aspertame taste like they have formaldahyde in them. I mean they are flat-nasty drinks. Sure I will drink one now and then, but I am trying to go for healthy drinks that I can drink that are permitted under the rules, and then also drinks that are satisfying my need for flavor and all.

So here's what I have been drinking lately:

Lipton Diet Green Tea


It tastes great, and might even be good for you. They say that green and black teas are a great source of antioxidants and so they may even help prevent cancer or other problems (with free radicals and all that stuff I won't even pretend to understand). It is definitely low carb and satisfies pretty well - both from a thirst quenching and a flavor point of view.





Sobe Green Tea

Sobe make some great tasting beverages and I also like their version of diet green tea. No aspertame, zero sugar, Carbs=1g, not too shabby. And it's earned the South Beach seal of approval evidently.

All kinds of free radical fighting antioxidents must be cram-packed into these bottles in some way that my mind could not even understand. They fill these babies with "Goodness Machines", and cap em' off when they are just cram-packed with all kinds of excellence & goodness!

Well, I kinda like em' pretty good anyhow. :)






Pepsi One Diet Cola

Pepsi Cola has come out with a type of diet soda that omits for some reason all the High Fructose Corn Syrup, and even the aspertame. Instead they use sucralose, better known as Splenda (the trademarked name of a productized version of sucralose I suppose).

The main thing about Pepsi One. It just tastes great!

And it is refreshing! For a Cola and soda fiend like myself it is nice to have something to drink that doesn't taste like I am being punished ("NO SWEETNESS & GOODNESS FOR YOU! BANISH HIM TO THE LAND OF FORMALDAHYDE TASTING NASTY DRINKS!"). I try not to overdo it and to just try to find more good and healthy options to drink. But it is nice to have a frosty cold cola over ice once innawhile.

There are more things that I am drinking, but this single post is probably going on long enough. But Why did I want to comment on what I am drinking? Well so many starting out on the LC life are worried about never having anything GOOD to taste anymore, and envision I suppose sucking cold greasy lard and fatty bits from meat, smiling and saying "Hmmmm, this tastes GOOOOD!"

Well - there actually ARE GREAT TASTING food and beverages out there, and you don't have to be locked into that kind of thinking - that you have forever given up on all good tasting food and beverages. You need to realize that there are many food and beverages that are actually good for you and satisfy!!!

Hang in there and look for low carb products that are both good for you and satisfy! Don't give up! Search for the wonderful LC recipes out there, and look for the permitted products that are full of taste and flavor. YOU CAN DO THIS!!! You can fill your world with good tasting, satisfying food and drink, and never miss a thing. Lose weight or maintain weight loss, be healthy, and feel great. And don't miss out on a thing!!!

Ups and Downs Today!

Well, I was all set to break the 40lb down barrier, or at least be so very near to breaking it. Only to have my excitement, hopes and all dashed on the rocks or great barrier reef of reality this morning. Watching in rapt attention to see my new digital scale read "360.0" in all it's digital glory... But I was crushed to see it read "366.8"!!! ARGH! FIVE POUNDS UP FROM YESTERDAY MORNING!!!

I can't complain as I was warned not to weigh EVERY DAY, but I cannot help it! I am like a kid in a candy store, excited by the very prospect of losing even more weight on this low carb life. It is like a daily reward, watching the pounds peal away! I have been losing a pound or more every day, and now this! I am not really blown out by this. Just a little frustrated. I am keeping to the plan. Staying the course. Looking for things to get back to the familiar daily lower numbers...

I think I know what my enemy is. WATER RETENTION. I had my calves swollen and large this morning, and simply know it is something like too much salt in something I ate - Unwittingly.

Do not panic - Oh TWO readers of my blog! I have not fallen off the wagon in a gigantic binge of chocolate, candy, cookies, donuts, and ice cream! I am staying true to form. I actually suspect the office cafeteria, where I ordered my low carb breakfast this morning!

I am very sensitive to salt, and if I have to cast suspicions around - looking for someone to blame, or some root cause of my calamity, I HAVE to believe it is something like this. Still - it is what it is. I have been drinking massive amounts of water and diet beverages to try to force the kidneys to purge me of my blight. Hopefully my plan will work!!

- Keeping the Faith. Staying the Course! Hoping the Best (Tomorrow Morning)!!!